Red wigglers could be the new black gold - if industrial vermicomposting takes off in SE Portland

The OregonianRed wiggler worms.Randy White, creator of the social networking site Bright Neighbor, preaches about the miracle of the worms.

"Red wiggler worms, I believe, are better than gold."

He's trying to turn into believers those assembled in the pews at the First Unitarian Church last week. Worms eat food waste. Worm castings enrich the soil without petroleum-based fertilizers. Worms can help maintain a hardy food supply. A vermicomposting collective, White said, would benefit everyone.

"Not only are they an amazing work force that doesn't ask for vacation and they poop out magic," he tells the group of more than 150, "but we can sell them."

He envisions an industrial scale vermicomposting farm in Southeast Portland. The 33-year-old wants to employ out-of-work people, ship worms all over the country and teach other communities how to do what he's doing. Enthusiastic and idealistic, White was been described as a guy so full of ideas "he runs around as if his hair is on fire."

The lead singer for the band Railer describes himself more simply. He's a rock'n'roller who thinks political leaders aren't doing enough to address climate change or fix a system that allows bailed-out banks to give executives bonuses as average Americans struggle to pay mortgages.

Goals of sustainability and self-sufficiency undergird everything White does. He started Bright Neighbor to foster community so that people could, say, share tools with neighbors and barter for the things they need (i.e., I'll give you Japanese lessons if you hem my pants).

He is starting a carbon-offset project that involves planting fruit and nut trees. Separately, he encourages Portlanders to learn how to prune their fruit and nut trees to keep them healthy and to propagate them by grafting.

An idea that's still just an idea and that made even his wife, Michelle, groan: sprinkle disposable biodegradable diapers with sweet sorghum seeds, let babies fertilize them and then plant them in the ground to grow a crop for ethanol.

But people are listening. Portland Mayor Sam Adams purchased a $250 share of the vermicomposting collective. Dave Dahl of Dave's Killer Bread sat in the audience at the Unitarian Church, as did Bo Rinaldi, owner of the Blossoming Lotus and author of vegan cookbooks. A visiting delegation from Pakistan was there, too, through the World Affairs Council of Oregon. Tom Dwyer Automotive Services, well-known for its green practices, is helping White launch neighborhood tree planting to offset carbon.

For the worm initiative, which White is calling "Worm Island" (www.wormisland.com), he asks people to pay $250 a share. So far he has sold 16 shares and has a small worm farm in a Share-It Square basement in Sellwood that uses food waste from the nearby New Seasons.

As the collective grows, as White sees its future, the worms will spread to more basements. Anyone who hosts worm bins in their home receives 10 percent of the profits from the worm sales as well as 10 percent of the soil created at their location.

White believes worms could be lucrative. He posted some rough math on an overhead at the Unitarian Church: Red wiggler worms double every 90 days. If you start with 100 pounds of red wiggler worms at $25 a pound, you might turn that investment into $40,000 by year's end. That doesn't take into account materials or labor, but still, White says, investors can make money if all goes well.

Graham White, an electrical engineer who says he moved to Portland last year to live among people who care about climate change and sustainability issues, says he's not convinced that White's projections would pan out: Will the price of red wigglers stay fixed if the supply explodes?

"If there are people clamoring for them for composting, maybe it could scale up," he says. "I'm not disagreeing with his goals at all or his priorities. We're running out of oil and we can't switch back to coal."

John Naramore at BWCN Farms in Banks, which sells red wigglers for $38 a pound including shipping, says a successful worm farm rests in the details. Having a small basement worm bin operation is one thing. A large worm farm is another.

"When you try to step it up to a commercial level, the bigger you get and the bigger your problems become," said Naramore, who met White two years ago. "If he brings in the right folks to help him manage this, he'll be fine."

White says he plans to hire consultants as the collective grows. Already, Worm Island experienced mites in a bin and the worm farmer had to quarantine the worms. All the bins are numbered and tracked and checked every two days. White knows that not all of his ideas work as he expects them to.

White isn't making money on any of his projects and feels the pull to "get a real job" more and more. But he cares too much to stop just yet, he says. Who knows if Worm Island will be successful? But what's riveting is White's energy and his ability to ramp up interest in strengthening community and sustainability in Portland.